Politics in the July 21 Crain's

Inside the taxi wars, the cost of countdown clocks balloons, and more public-sector news in this week's Crain's.

The yellow cab industry in New York has reigned for decades, but market disruptors such as Lyft and Uber are threatening it, Andrew J. Hawkins writes:

"We're in a political campaign, and the candidate is Uber and the opponent is an asshole named taxi," Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told a tech audience in May. "Nobody likes him, he's not a nice character, but he's so woven into the political machinery and fabric that a lot of people owe him favors."

Eleven council members set aside almost $2.8 million in the new city budget to outfit 100 or more bus stops with countdown clocks. But the price per clock could be four times what they originally expected with high ongoing maintenance costs for a service already available via mobile phone, Thornton McEnery reports:

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"If you have a grandmother, try to get her to use a cellphone," said Councilman Brad Lander, who budgeted $240,000 for bus-stop clocks in his Brooklyn district. "Twenty thousand dollars is a very reasonable cost for infrastructure that can be used by thousands of people to make their lives easier."

It took Mayor Bill de Blasio six months to find a new commissioner for the Department of Buildings. Daniel Geiger examines the reasons for the long search:

"You have to be fair, you have to be flexible, you have to have nerves of steel and be able to deal with the pressures of development, which are tremendous,” said Robert LiMandri, who, as is customary, stepped down as buildings commissioner when the new administration took office. “It can be a very rewarding job, but you have to find the right person, and that's incredibly difficult.”

Weeks before Mr. de Blasio struck a new contract agreement with the United Federation of Teachers, its parent union gave $350,000 to Mr. de Blasio's closely affiliated nonprofit, Chris Bragg writes:

"It's an awfully large donation to make in the final stages of labor negotiations," said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union. "And these groups doing business with the city—while they make these donations—is [a situation] just riddled with conflicts."

New York City's economy is boiling, but several major industries at the forefront may have bubbles, columnist Greg David says:

In fact, bubbles are the preoccupation of the day as the prices of many assets rise, in part because the economy is improving and interest rates are so low that investors are chasing anything with better returns. If the bubbles burst, the worriers contend, the economy could be dragged down, too.